Sally Sitou (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Education. How is the Albanese Labor government investing in education and backing public school teachers?

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank my friend the remarkable member for Reid for her question. She's also a proud product of Sefton High School. It's Public Education Day. It's also Thursday. I know my friends opposite would like a story, so let me give one to you. I was looking at my old school photos over the weekend, and as I looked at my year 7 photo I saw the tallest boy in the class. He was a boy named Corey. He was a refugee from Vietnam. In my year 12 photo, he's the shortest kid in the class. Why is that the case? He was the tallest in year 7 and shortest in year 12. It turns out Corey was five years older than the rest of us. His mum changed his age on the paperwork because she didn't want him to miss out on an education. She didn't want him to miss out. I don't want anyone to miss out. We don't want anyone held back. We don't want anyone left behind.

It's what we do in education that is so important in that task, and it's public education that does so much of the heavy lifting here. It educates kids from everywhere—from rich families and poor families and everything in between, in the cities, in the regions, in the bush, of all backgrounds, of all cultures, of all religions. It's these schools, traditionally, that have been the most underfunded—until this government, until this bloke here, until this Prime Minister, who fixed the funding of our public schools. It's the biggest investment in public education by an Australian government ever—$20 billion of extra funding to fix the funding of our public schools—and it's not a blank cheque. This is funding that's tied to real and practical reforms, like phonics checks and small-group tutoring to help kids catch up. That's what mums and dads would expect. It's what kids deserve. It's what Labor governments do. It's what Liberal governments always undo. Labor governments invest in education, and it's Liberals that rip the guts out of education.

Can I use this opportunity for a quick shout-out to our teachers. They deserve every cent that they get. They deserve, like every other worker, the tax cuts that are in the budget and in the legislation that the Treasurer introduced today. Early education teachers as well. These are the people who are the real glue, the real magic, the real heroes of this story who teach our kids the basics and so much more. All of us know a teacher who changed our lives. That's what a good education does. It changes lives. A great education system changes countries.